Dr.D.S. Fredrickson

Named Director
Of Heart Institute

President Lyndon B. Johnson has
announced the appointment of Dr.
Donald S. Fredrickson as Director
of the National Heart Institute.

In his new post, Dr. Fredrickson

- will be charged
with overall plan-
ning, direction, and
coordination of the
Institute’s large,
broadly-based pro-
grams of govern-
ment-supported re-
search and training
in the cardiovascu-

. ‘lar field. He suc-
Dr. Fredrickson ceeds Dr. Robert
P. Grant, who served from March
8 of this year until his sudden, un-
expected death Aug. 15.

Here Since ‘53

A member of the NHI scientific
staff since 1953, Dr. Fredrickson
had served since 1961 as the Insti-
tute’s Clinical Director, with re-
sponsibility for all NHI research
involving patients and normal vol-
unteers.

His research at NHI has earned
him international recognition as an
authority on fat transport in the
circulation and on the disease of

(See FREDRICKSON, Page 4)
FREDRICKSON

(Continued from Page 1)
lipid metabolism.

From 1955-1961, as a senior re-
search staff member of the Labo-
ratory of Cellular Physiology and
Metabolism, he participated in a
series of major studies that re-
sulted in fundamental contributions
to current scientific knowledge of
mechanisms whereby fats and fat-
like substances are transported,
synthesized, and broken down by
the body.

Lipoproteins Studied

These studies also investigated
the effectiveness and mode of ac-
tion of various drugs that reduce
blood levels of cholesterol and other
lipids.

More recently, first with the
Laboratory of Metabolism, then as
Chief of the Laboratory of Molec-
ular Diseases, Dr. Fredrickson has
conducted and directed laboratory
and clinical research on the struc-
ture of plasma lipoproteins, their
role in fat transport, and on genetic
factors that regulate lipoprotein
metabolism.

His studies of heritable diseases
of fat storage and metabolism in-
clude the discovery of the lipopro-
tein deficiency state, Tangier dis-
ease, and establishment of its mode
of inheritance.

New System Introduced

Last year, Dr. Fredrickson and
his colleagues introduced a new
system for using plasma lipopro-
tein patterns to identify and clas-
sify excesses of blood cholesterol
and other fats. With it they have
demonstrated several new syn-
dromes not previously recognized
as separate diseases,

Employing simple, low-cost
methods, this system is now in use
in a number of laboratories in this
country and abroad as a basis for
better diagnosis and followup of
patients with elevated blood lipids
and for establishing the prevalence
of these diseases, frequently asso-
ciated with accelerated develop-
ment of arteriosclerosis.

Research to Continue

Dr. Fredrickson will remain
Chief of the Laboratory of Molecu-
lar Diseases and plans to continue
his research work.

Born Aug. 8, 1924, in Canon City,
Colo., Dr. Fredrickson received his
B.S. at the University of Michigan
in 1946 and his M.D. at Michigan in
1949. He did postgraduate work at
Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Mas-
sachusetts General Hospital, and
Harvard Medical School, Boston,
prior to joining the NHI staff as a
Clinical Associate in 1953. He was
certified by the American Board of
Internal Medicine in 1957.

Dr. Fredrickson’s affiliations in-
clude the American Heart Associa-
tion, American Association of Phy-

 

sicians, American Oil Chemists’
Society, American Physiological
Society, American Society of Hu-
man Genetics, and the American
Society for Clinical Investigation.
He also holds faculty appointments
at George Washington U. and
Georgetown U. Medical Schools.
He has served on numerous ad-
visory groups, including the Ad-
visory Council on Research, New
York State Heart Association; the
Food and Nutrition Board of the
National Research Council; the
Council on Arteriosclerosis of the
American Heart Association, and
the Medical Advisory Boards of the
Federal Aviation Agency and the
National Tay-Sachs Foundation.

This year he was elected Secre-
tary-Treasurer of the American
Society for Clinical Investigation
and is currently Chairman of the
Medical Board of the NIH Clinical
Center.

The author or co-author of many
scientific papers and reviews, and
co-editor of The Metabolic Basis
of Inherited Diseases, he is a mem-
ber of the Publications Committee
of the American Physiological So-
ciety and past member of the edi-
torial boards of the Journal of
Clinical Investigation and the Jour-
nal of Lipid Research,